Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway boosted its stake in Johnson & Johnson [JNJ 58.01 -0.14 (-0.24%) ] by 73 percent between March 31 and June 30, adding 17.4 million shares worth just over $1 billion at today's closing price of $58.01.
Berkshire's holdings in J&J have ranged from a high of 61.75 million shares as recently as September 30, 2008 to a low of 23.89 million shares at the end of this year's first quarter.
In his annual letter to shareholders in February, Buffett said that his largest sales of 2009, including Johnson & Johnson, helped pay for other non-stock purchases, including its acquisition of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight railroad.
But he said the sales were not motivated by a belief the stocks would fall in price. "Charlie (Munger) and I believe that all of these stocks will likely trade higher in the future."
J&J shares fell from a high of just over $66 in mid-April to trade around $58-$59 in June, and Buffett presumably took advantage of that decline to buy the stock.
NEW FISERV STAKE
Berkshire added a new 4.4 million share stake in financial data services company Fiserv [FISV 50.07 0.88 (+1.79%) ] during the second quarter.
At today's 4p ET closing price of $50.07 (up 1.8% ahead of the news), Berkshire's stake in Fiserv is worth just over $220 million.
The stock is adding to the day's gains in after-hours trading, up 2.3 percent to $51.20 as of 4:30p ET today.
Wisconsin-based Fiserv, founded in 1984, describes itself as "the leading global provider of information management and electronic commerce systems for the financial services industry."
OTHER MOVES
Berkshire also increased its stakes in:
* Becton Dickinson, up 145,761 shares (+8.4%) to 1,889,889 shares
[BDX 70.63 -0.33 (-0.47%) ]
* Iron Mountain, up 205,200 shares (+2.6%) to 8,000,000 shares
[IRM 22.00 0.03 (+0.14%) ]
* Nalco Holding, up 150,000 shares (+1.7%) to 9,150,000 shares
[NLC 23.30 0.09 (+0.39%) ]
* Sanofi Aventis, up 159,742 shares (+4.1%) to 4,063,675 shares
[SNY 28.75 0.11 (+0.38%) ].
Holdings were trimmed for:
* ConocoPhillips, down 5,069,612 shares (-14.8%) to 29,109,637 shares
[COP 54.93 -0.09 (-0.16%) ]
* Kraft Foods, down 1,520,161 shares (-1.4%) to 105,214,584 shares[KFT 29.45 -0.05 (-0.17%) ]
* Procter & Gamble, down 1,025,748 shares (-1.3%) to 78,071,036 shares, as foreshadowed in Berkshire's Q2 10-Q filing with the SEC.
[PG 59.77 -0.05 (-0.08%) ].
Current Berkshire stock prices:
Class B: [BRK.B 76.84 0.06 (+0.08%) ]
Class A: [BRK.A 115260.0 80.00 (+0.07%) ]
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